Book cover and method of making same



Feb. 4, 1930. c, D, TRUSSELL 1,745,461

BOOK COVER AND METHOD OF MAKING SAME Filed April 8. 1926 Q; E M e i w r W d i d 1 5- '7 I I 1/ I l v I 1 INVENTOIR' I i gfiwwi.

l B A j L y liorneys, CILM4 3::1

Patented Feb. 4, 1930 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CLARENCE D. TRUSSELL, POUGHKEEPSIE, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO THUS SELL MANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF POUGHKEEPSIE, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION OF NEW. YORK BOOK COVER AND METHOD OF MAKING SAME Application filed April 8,

This invention relates to book covers ofstructions the back plate is applied on the exterior of the book back, but for many purposes it is preferable to not permit any metal to appear upon the exterior, and to accomplish this, different constructions have been attempted. The cementing of a back plate to the inner face of the back has been generally unsuccessful; attempts to secure the plate against theinner face of the back by metallic attachments which do not penetrate through the back, have also not proven very satisfactory; some degree of success has been attained by splitting the leather of theback and inserting the metal back plate between the outer and inner parts of the severed back portion, but this has generally been a difiicult,

expensive, and somewhat unsatisfactory operation. Heretofore the most successful expedient which has been suggested for accomplishing this result has been the splitting of the leather forming the back of the book by cutting it'from the interior to form two flaps which are turned up, the metal plate inserted behind them, and the flaps cemented down against its inner face; this-isset, forthin my Patent No. 1,025,170, granted May 7, 1912.

The present invention affords an improvement upon the construction set forth in said patent, and includes an expeditious and successful method of accomplishing the slitting of the leather to form the said internal flaps.

1 According to the present invention the leather is formedon its inner face with alongitudinal groove along the middle of what is to be the book back; the leather is then bent backwardly over a suitable, support or saddle, so that the groove is presented uppermost, and so that the cover on opposite sides of the groove is held securely in position with its opposite sides preferably parallel, and

while so held on'the saddle'it is slitted by 1926. Serial No. 100,566.

two rapidly revolving saws or disks; after which the metal back plate is inserted, the

leather back being thereby curved in the usual form of a convex book back. The back plate may be suitably cemented in place between the outer and inner thicknesses of leather. To this back plate is then applied on the inner face of the flaps, the usual curved base plate on whichthe metals or ring binding devices of any usual type of loose-leaf book are mounted.

The invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which Figure 1 is a section of the back portion of a loose-leaf binder of the ring book type.

Fig. 2 is a perspective showing the sheet of leather directly after the first grooving oper ation.

Fig. 3 is an edge view of the leather thus grooved, and I Fig. 4 is a similar view showing it after the inner flaps have been cut.

Fig. 5 is a transverse view showing the operation of cutting the flaps, the saddle bein insection.

ig. 6 is a view of the back portion of the book cover after the insertion of the back plate.

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary plan of the back portion of the book cover partly in section, to show the manner of cutting the pockets.

Referring to the drawings, the successive steps of the method will now be described.

A sheet of leather A of suitable dimensions to form the back and sides of the book cover, and' preferably flexible leather, is first grooved in the manner shown in Fig. 2. The

grooves a, a are the usual grooves to form flexible hinges between the back and sides.

The middle groove 6 is the one already referred to, which extends longitudinally along the middle of the book back on its inner side.

Next, the leather back portion is to be slitted at c, c (Fig. 4) to form separate leather flaps d, d on its inner side. This slitting might be variously accomplished by cutting from the groove 1; to right and left,

until the cuts are carried to the requisite depth to afford flaps (I, (Z of the necessary width. The combined widths of these flaps should be very nearly the entire width of the book back. r

The practical and expeditious way for accomplishing this cutting is that shown in Fig. 5. Here a saddle B is provided, being a stiff metal plate having preferably a rounded upper edge over which the middle of the book cover is bent, the sides of the book back being drawn downward against the opposite sides of the saddle plate, as clearly shown. The leather "may be held firmly against the opposite sides of the saddle by any suitable cheek plates when deemed necessary. Twoisuch plates are shown in dotted lines at C in Fig. 5. Any suitable cutters D, D are mounted to cut downwardly parallel with each other and with the opposite faces of the saddle, and so spaced apart as to cut the slits c, c at the proper thickness between the outer and inner surfaces of the leather. While reciprocating knives might be used, it is preferable to use revolving circular cutters. which may have sharp edges, as knives. or may have serrated edges, being saws. They are mounted on a spindle E and separated by a collar F to hold them inthe proper spacing. Either the saddle or the spindle may be moved to accomplish the cutting, which may be done progressively. For small book backs a single feed under the revolving cutters will suflice to cut the slits at once to their full depth. For larger book backs it may be desirable to cause a more gradual feed.

When the leather has thus been cut, the metal back plate G is applied within the pocket formed between the outer cover and the inner flaps d, d, as shown in Fig. 6. The plate G is usually curved, as shown, and as the outer back traverses the exterior of this curve and the flaps d lie on the interior thereof, the diflerence in their circumferential dimensions for the are formed by the back plate is such as to bring the edges of the flaps toward each other to more or less close up the space originally made by the cutting of the somewhat wide groove 6. The flaps may thus be united edge to edge, as shown in Fig. 6, or they may more or less closely approach this union, as desired.

The metal plate G may be cemented into the leather pocket formed between the flaps and the back by means of any suitable cement.

This, however, is not necessary, since the final operation will clamp the flaps d between this plate and the inner back plate I or base plate H which is usually employed in such looseleaf binders, and which is shown in Fig. 1, or to a spring back plate I.

The final-operation is the usual one of uniting the metals to the book back to complete the structure of which an example is shownin Fig. 1, although various constructions of loose-leaf books may be used, my invention being independent of the particular construction employed for uniting the loose leaves or sheets to the book back.

In the construction shown in Fig. 1, the back plate G has the usual ears e near its opposite ends. These ears are shown standing up in Fig. 6, and turned down in Fig. 1.

After applyingthe inner base plate H, these ears are bent down as shown at e in Fig. 1, to clinch against the plate H and thereby clam between the two plates the leather flaps The edges of the flaps d are notched or slit at f, as shown in Fig. 2, to admit thepassage of the tongues e of the back plate. These slits 0, 0 may extend to the ends or be located somewhat back of the ends, as shown. In some constructions the plate H forms the spring back plate of the binding elements; while in others a separate spring back plate I is used, and in either case the rings J, formed as usual as prongs or half rings, are mounted in any suitable way, directly or indirectly, u on .or in association with such spring back p ate or other equivalent construction.

In the cutting operation the cutters D may be carried entirely through the leather blank at its ends, thereby completely severing the ends of the flaps d and forming open pockets; or, alternatively, the cutters may stop somewhat short of the ends, for example, in the position indicated by the dotted circle a: in Fig. 7, which shows the relation of the cutter for the pocketabove the middle of the book back in that figure. The former method affords an expeditious and economical way of producing the open pockets of my Patent No. 1,025,170,

granted May 7, 1912. The latter procedure forms the pockets withclosed ends, which for some purposes makes a more desirable book cover, as the separation between the flaps and the book back proper is not apparent at the ends of the book. With a closed-ended pocket thus formed, the bottom of the cuttoward the ends is left in the form of an arc y, as shown at the right in Fig. 7 and this form may be suitable if the'embedded plate G is rounded at its ends to conform with the areshaped portion y; but where (as will usually be the case) it is preferred to use a squareended plate, then by a separate operation the arc-shaped portion 3/ will be cut through to a square corner, as shown at z in Fig. 7. This will be done by means of any suitable knife capable of cutting such a square corner, andfizo" this knife may be operated by hand or may be mechanically moved, its cut being limited by any suitable gauge in order to leave the end portion of the leather at w uncut for a deter-'' mined and uniform width. The book back the latter being flexible enoughto permit the plate to be inserted. \Vith a longer late, the

7 pocket may be cut through atone en only.

The usual grooves a, a between the back and sides of the cover to form flexiblehinges may be made of any suitable width and may extend from end to end or stop somewhat short of the ends, as desired, all as has been the general practice in the manufacture of onepiece leather covers according to my Patent No. 1,104,394.

IVhile the present inventioncontemplates the makingof book covers of leather, yet it is to some extent applicable with other and closely analogous materials in the nature of artificial leather, such as will afford for the outer back and the inner flaps the requisite strength.

I claim as my invention:

1. Themethodofmakingabookcoverof single-ply material which consists in longitudinally grooving the material along the middle of the inner side of the book back, then cutting from such groove in both directions to a suitable depth to split the material and form flaps, and then inserting a back plate into the pocket formed between the flap's and the uncut exterior part of thebook back.

2. The method of making a book cover of single-ply material which consists in longitudinally grooving the material along the middle oft-he inner side of the book back, then bending the material backward over a support with the groove uppermost, then cutting from the groove on both sides of the support to split the material and form flaps, and then inserting a back plate into the pocket formed between the flaps and the uncut exterior part of the book back.

' 3. The method according to claim 1, the groove being of such width that upon insertmg a curved back plate the flaps on the concave side thereof will approach each other without overlapping.

' 4. The method according to claim 1, the

' groove beingof suchwidth that upon inserting a curved back plate the flaps on the concave side thereof are brought edge to edge.

5. The method of makinga book cover'of single-ply material which consists in longitudinally grooving the material along the a middle of theinner side of the book back, then cutting from such groove in both directions to y a suitable depth to split the material of the book back, the cuts thus made stopping short of the ends to form an integral pocket with closed ends, and then inserting a back plate into such pocket.

' eration to leave the ends uncut and form an integral enclosed pocket, and finally inserting a back plate into suchpocket.

7. A book cover formed of a sheet of singleply material having integral flaps formed on its inner side by partly severing portions of said material, the plane of severance of such flaps being parallel with the outer surface, with a convex back plate inserted in the back between the flaps and the uncut exterior part of the book back, with the flaps on the concave sile of said back plate approaching edge to e ge.,

' 8. A book cover formed of a sheet of singleply material having integral flaps formed in its inner side by partly severing portions of said material, such flaps being severed parallel with the outer surface, with a convex back plate inserted in the back between the flaps and the uncut exterior part of the book back, the flaps spaced apart at their free edges so that with a back plate of given convexity the opposite flaps meet edge to edge. a

9. A book cover formed of a sheet of singleply material having integral flaps formed on the inner side of its back by partly severing portions of said material, the plane of severance of such flaps being parallel with the outer surface, the severance terminating short of the ends, whereby to form pockets with integral closed ends between the severed flap porlttions and the exterior part of the book bac 1 10. In a binder, a cover of integral material split to form a pocket with closed ends, said pocket opening on the inner side of the cover,

- and a plate confined in said pocket. 7

11.- In a binder, a flexible cover ofsingleply material with the back split on the inner and a back plate inserted within said'pockets.

' In witness whereof, I have hereunto signed my name.

CLARENCE D. TRUSSELL.

e. The method or making a book cover of single-ply material which consists in longitudinally grooving the material along the middle of the inner side of the book back, then cutting from such groove in both directions to a suitable depth-to split the material of the book back, the cuts being made by a circular cutter and stopping short of the ends to form I 

